By Andrea Guachalla
The internet was taken up by storm back in November of 2023 when Javier Milei, a right-wing conservative, was elected as the new president in the once great Argentina. If you’re not familiar with what’s been taking place there let me fill you in. In the past few decades it’s been devastated by socialism and government’s corruption to the point of reaching inflation rates of over 100%, similar to what some low-income African countries are experiencing. Added to that, the leftist indoctrination has been steadily garnering more adepts, especially young people who have been taught that they can’t go forward in life without the government’s aid.
The former ruling parties’ left agenda that had been pushing Argentina to be more progressive, led to its economic fall and emergency situation that has not been dealt with by the people who led it there. The population was rooting for a new face that would offer real solutions and stop corruption. So there came Javier Milei, whose compelling rhetoric and excentric hair gained him even more attention given their resemblance to Donald Trump’s and Boris Johnson’s.
He won the presidency with “La Libertad Avanza” (Liberty Advances) political party, and has since been talking about what freedom means to him, and what the “values of liberty” are. As a libertarian he has often talked about the principle of no aggression, free market, and individual freedom. Personal and national accountability have also been part of his speeches, and a bold condemnation of what the leftists are doing worldwide.
That’s all well and good. At least in part…
Many have argued that Milei’s ideological stances are the best option for the Argentinian population right now. Even people who deem his self-claimed anarchocapitalism stance as extreme have come to agree that it is better to have him as a president than to continue being ruled by corrupt leftists. However, there is a humongous misconception on what he believes freedom is, and how it is described in the Bible.
Now, you might be wondering why it would be important to discuss this right now. And I have two reasons to want to discuss this. First, Milei’s victory has sparked many conversations around the globe surrounding libertarianism and what liberty actually is. I mean, he has even been interviewed by Ben Shapiro. Second, Milei often attempts (and I really mean it’s just an attempt) to explain his libertarian position and the “values of liberty” with… the Bible. Yes. The Bible. And more specifically the “Torah”. Since he has some judaic influence in his closer circle he often refers to the Torah… Or at least he thinks he’s making references to it.
Now bear with me before I go into what Milei says freedom is, and what the Bible actually teaches about it… I’m gonna say one thing:
Milei might be a very well educated economist, Ben Shapiro a great communicator, and Jordan Peterson an outstanding psychologist. Anyone can acknowledge that. HOWEVER, the fact that they are excellent in their field does not mean at all that they understand God’s revelation. We might learn economy, psychology and/or politics from them. But they will never come to the right conclusions when explaining theology and the true purpose of man unless God gives them a new heart and a new mind. We hope God is merciful with them, but for now I believe anyone who has listened to their – sometimes – long-winded explanations on theological issues can say this: they completely miss the point.
Every. Single. Time.
Regarding freedom, Milei’s understanding seems to be quite simplistic. Freedom is to be able to do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt anybody, this is known as the “principle of no aggression”. Freedom is an end in itself according to libertarians like the Argentine president. The thing is that you don’t need to think too much before you run into conflicts with the Christian worldview. If the only limitation to exercising one’s liberty is that we don’t hurt another person with our actions, we have license to commit all kinds of sins as long as they don’t directly and immediately hurt another person.
A person who internally gives in to their same-sex attractions, or a man who watches pornography, or a woman who dresses immodestly are not physically hurting anybody. Does that mean that what they are doing is fine though? If we only take the “principle of no aggression” into account, we can argue they are free to do so. The logical conclusion to which some political commentators, like Albert Mohler, have come to is that a person would also be free to sell their organs, or be prostitutes given that they are doing so from their own will.
But what is that? Is that really what freedom is about in the Bible? Freedom to do anything including what God condemns as sin?
The Bible teaches the true path to freedom
Fors starters the Bible never teaches individual freedom is the end goal for man. From start to finish it teaches that we, God’s creation, were separated from Him because of our sins. And that he had decreed that man would be saved by believing in Christ, the Son of God, with the end goal of bringing glory to Himself. Hence our purpose in life is to glorify God, not to be free to do what our corrupt and wicked hearts dictate.
The book of Romans gives us a good explanation of what freedom is:
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” Romans 6:16-18
When we act upon anything that will give us pleasure or overfocus on our own well-being regardless of others, we are not free. We are slaves to our own sin and selfishness. And that is exactly what Milei and other libertarians miss. That is not true freedom, that is what the letter to the Romans describe as being slaves to sin.
As Paul explains the attitude of a true Christian towards sin and the law of God, he goes on to explain that we are actually set free. Of course we are. But we are not set free to keep sinning, but rather to become slaves to righteousness, slaves to Christ. Those claims might seem to be incongruent with each other at a first glance, but that is the tension in which we Christians live. We are free from sin, free to obey God’s commands as a consequence of having believed in Christ.
The same passage says that we are slaves of the one whom we obey. Thus if we obey Christ having been freed from sin, then we are slaves to Christ. And we better be, given that that is the only path that leads us to righteousness, and the only way that leads us to fulfill our one, true purpose: to glorify God.
When you hear Ben Shapiro, and Javier Milei, and libertarians who obsess over individual freedom and try to argue their claims with the Bible in mind, remember this: we do not share the same view on the issue AT ALL. And we ought not to. We don’t need to get theology lessons from non-believers who share some of our values but hate God. We must go to the Word of God to find the answer to our questions, and be firm in what we believe as long as it goes in accordance with God’s written revelation.
